A teenager who unknowingly donated HIV- infected blood that was later transfused to a pregnant woman in Tamil Nadu, died in Madurai on Sunday days after a suicide bid. Police said the 19-year-old was initially stable but had to be shifted to another hospital where he died due to some complications during treatment.
On Thursday, the boy consumed rat poison as his family struggled to come to terms with him being infected with HIV.
On December 3, the woman visited the Sattur government hospital for antenatal checks where she was advised blood transfusion as she was anaemic. Four days after the procedure, it came to light that the blood transfused was HIV positive and was negligently labelled safe by the hospital's lab technicians. The blood was donated by a teenager, which was originally meant to be transfused to his relative. Since it was not used, it was stored in the blood bank.
The vacation bench comprising Justice S Vaidyanathan and Justice PT Asha commenced the proceedings. The bench said that it would like to take suo motu cognisance and issued notice to the health secretary seeking a status report on the incident and action taken against the errant officials by January 3.